Car companies are really in a predicament. Shareholders expect them to sell more cars as profitably as possible. To do this, often means adding features which add weight which reduces their MPG which makes them even less environmentally friendly. Cars sold in the US have grown with our collective waistlines guzzling a lot more gas along the way. The 2007 Honda Accord is about 1/2 ton heavier than its 1990’s predecessor and gets about 1/3 the MPGs. Asking car makers do go on a diet will probably be as effective as asking the American public to do the same. So what is an environmental responsible yet sales- driven automaker to do?
VW’s answer is to offer carbon credits to its US customers. According to the blog DiscoverHybridCars:
Volkswagen of America has partnered with
Carbonfund.org
to offset one year of carbon emission from each new Volkswagen
vehicle sold in the US from 1 September 2007 through 2 January 2008.
Working with Carbonfund.org, a non-profit carbon offset company,
Volkswagen plans to reforest land in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial
Valley (LMAV) in Northern Louisiana, a wetland ecosystem that had
been largely converted to farmland. The total carbon reduction is
estimated at more than 372,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the
planting of over 250,000 native trees in the Volkswagen Forest.
This is indeed an interesting approach and one that should appeal to Vdubs youthful target. Importantly, VW is not stopping there:
In addition to this carbon offset program, Volkswagen has also
partnered with Carbonfund.org to offset carbon emissions at a
vehicle test drive program at the Teva Mountain Games and for an
upcoming “Clean Diesel Tour” promoting the upcoming Jetta Tier 2 Bin
5 diesel (earlier post) and
VW’s alternative fuel strategy.
Marketing for Good supports these baby steps by VW with a major caveat–automakers collectively need to think bigger about reducing emissions and increasing MPGs. Since Americans won’t settle for smaller cars (unless gas prices hit $5/gallon), automakers need to figure out how to make bigger ones far more fuel efficient. Don’t wait for an act of Congress. Get started now. Make ‘em lighter. Make ‘em more aerodynamic. Or better yet, how ’bout offering $1.0 billion dollars to the engineering team that figures out how to make a car run on air or water. It’s time to Think Big.